[Fwd: Reminder: Burnt Cork - Traditions and Legacies of Blackface Minstrelsy]

[Luella Massey]

With apologies for cross posting.



*FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE* March 15, 2008
Graduate Centre for Study of Drama, University of Toronto



*BURNT CORK: TRADITIONS AND LEGACIES OF BLACKFACE MINSTRELSY*
*MARCH 28-29, 2008*
*An Interdisciplinary Symposium*

Dedicated to the highly contentious and richly complex tradition of 
blackface minstrelsy, this two day symposium aims to provide an 
opportunity for exploration, discussion, and debate concerning the 
varied legacies of this performance idiom. All events will take place at 
the Graduate Centre for Study of Drama's Robert Gill Theatre.

For much of the 19th century, blackface minstrelsy–in which a group of 
performers wearing makeup made of burnt cork pretended to ‘delineate’ 
the culture of black Americans–was arguably the most popular 
entertainment in North America. A renewed scholarly interest in this 
contentious form has produced studies treating a range of issues: its 
contradictory depictions of class, race and gender; its relationship 
with an American popular street culture; its legacy in the development 
of racial stereotyping, with which we continue to live; and its parallel 
legacy in a number of persistent performance idioms in humour, dance and 
music, in live performance, film and television. Although an American 
form, from its beginnings minstrel performers toured across North 
America and around the world, establishing a taste for American popular 
culture in all English-speaking colonies and in Western Europe. This 
symposium will explore, from seven individual perspectives, and with 
plenty of time for an open discussion, the complex and sometimes 
troubling issues raised by this tradition.

*Featured Speakers:*
*Dale Cockrell* ~ Blair School of Music, Vanderbilt College ~ Demons of 
Disorder
*Catherine M. Cole* ~ Theatre & Dance, UC Berkeley ~ Ghana’s Concert 
Party Theatre
*Daphne Brooks* ~ English and African American Studies, Princeton ~ 
Bodies In Dissent
*Arthur Knight* ~ American Studies, College of William and Mary ~ 
Disintegrating the Musical
*W. T. Lhamon* ~ English, Emeritus, Florida State ~ Raising Cain, and 
Jump Jim Crow
*Linda Williams* ~ Rhetoric and Film Studies, UC Berkeley ~ Playing the 
Race Card
*Original Dance Performance by: Dean Moss*


*Friday, March 28: 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm, Reception to follow*
*Saturday, March 29: 10:00 am – 6:00 pm*
*Robert Gill Theatre*
* 214 College Street, (St. George St. entrance) 3rd fl.*
*All events free of charge*

This symposium is made possible by a generous donation from the Jackman 
Humanities Institute and sponsored by the University of Toronto's 
Graduate Centre for Study of Drama, Anti-Racism and Cultural Diversities 
Office, Cinema Studies Institute, Centre for Diaspora and Transnational 
Studies, Faculty of Music, and Centre for the Study of the United States,


*For more information: 
http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/~w3minstr/conference.html 
<http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/%7Ew3minstr/conference.html>*
/_For interview requests or other information please contact:_/
*Luella Massey at 416-978-7986 or l.massey at utoronto.ca*
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: PRESS RELEASE - BURNT CORK.doc
Type: application/msword
Size: 29184 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://artsservices.uwaterloo.ca/pipermail/candrama/attachments/20080320/1acd02d1/attachment.doc>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: BC Poster.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 302960 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://artsservices.uwaterloo.ca/pipermail/candrama/attachments/20080320/1acd02d1/attachment.pdf>